Tone library / Red hot Chili pepers / Cant Stop

Cant Stop amp settings — Vox AC30C2

The Red hot Chili pepers guitar tone for “Cant Stop”, dialed in for a Vox AC30C2 with a Squier Contemporary Stratocaster. Studio version, By the Way (2002)

Original rig

Marshall Major 200W (or Fender Deluxe Reverb), Fender Stratocaster '62 or Telecaster '60, Boss CE-1 Chorus, Big Muff Pi for solo

Bright, percussive funk-rock crunch with tight lows and pronounced upper-mids
Amp settings — Vox AC30C2
CHANNELNormal channelBRIGHToffBOOSToff
GAIN 3 BASS 3 MID 6 TREBLE 5 PRESENCE 4 REVERB 0 MASTER 6
KnobSetting (0–10)
Gain3
Bass3
Mid6
Treble5
Presence4
Reverb0
Master6
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Guitar
PICKUPbridge TONE10 VOLUME10
Why these settings

The original Marshall Major has bright, present mids with high headroom — your AC30 shares the Class A chime but has a pronounced treble peak around 3-4kHz that the Marshall lacks. I dropped treble from the original's 7 to 5 and presence from 6 to 4 to avoid ice-pick highs. Bass cut from 4 to 3 because the AC30's low-end is already warm and thick. Without the Boss CE-1 chorus that Frusciante used for body, the tone will be slightly thinner — the AC30's natural compression partially compensates.

PRO TIPFrusciante's signature on this riff is full-strum muting — strike all six strings on every note but block the unused strings with your fretting hand. This percussive attack is 70% of the tone; without it, even perfect settings sound lifeless.

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These settings are for a Vox AC30C2. ToneAdapt matches any song to whatever amp, guitar and pedals you own — first match is free.

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